Islington

Islington is a borough in inner London, England. Its Anglo-Saxon name "Gislandune" means "Gisla's Hill", and it grew as a sprawling Middlesex village along the Great North Road after the 14th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries, its fertility and manors attracted several Londoners to the area to enjoy its rural feel, and several pubs were built to serve the travellers. By the 19th century, several music halls and theatres were built around Islington Green. The population rose from 10,212 in 1801 to 319,143 in 1891, mostly due to the introduction of horse-drawn omnibuses in 1830 and the building of well-built houses and fashionable squares (which attracted clerks, artisans, and professionals to the district). During The Blitz of the 1940s, 3,200 dwellings were destroyed by the Luftwaffe, and the council housing boom got its stride in the years after World War II ended in 1945, and Islington became an overcrowded district. During the 1960s, the rediscovery of the area's Georgian terraces led to gentrification by supporters of the New Labour movement. The modern "London Borough of Islington" was formed in 1965 as the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Islington and Finsbury, but it was still the second-smallest borough in London. In 2017, Islington had a population of 235,000 people, 47.7% of whom were white English, 16.4% other white, 6.1% black African, 3.9% white Irish, 3.9% black Caribbean, 2.8% other black, and other significant Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese minority populations.